Travel can sometimes be inconvenient — especially if your family's dream vacation turns into a nightmare of canceled or delayed flights.
However, you do have rights when the airline cancels, delays, or overbooks flights. On top of that, your insurance might help you recover the cost of meals, lodging, lost baggage, and other expenses for you and your family members.
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Understanding Compensation Eligibility for Families
It’s important to understand what’s included in airline policies and what’s required by law.
In all cases, if each family member has their own ticket, each of you is considered a separate passenger, able to take advantage of these policies.
Delay/cancellation compensation
In many cases, airlines offer some type of compensation — even if it isn’t cash — for passengers impacted by delays and cancellations. Typically, these only apply to controllable delays/cancellations, meaning it’s the airline’s fault, such as a crew shortage.
Uncontrollable delays and cancellations, such as for bad weather or air traffic control issues, usually aren’t eligible for compensation.
Some of these policies include:
- Rebooking: Airlines usually rebook all affected passengers on a new flight. If you’re traveling with family, make sure the airline keeps you all together, especially if you have young children.
- Meal vouchers: Most major airlines offer meal vouchers when a cancellation or delay results in waiting for at least three hours and the delay was within the airline’s control. When you claim your vouchers, bring all the tickets for your children — you can claim meal vouchers for your kids as well as yourself.
- Hotel accommodations: If you have to stay overnight, some airlines will offer complimentary hotel accommodations if the delay was their fault. Make sure the accommodations are adequate. Consider claiming more than one room if your family needs additional beds. Point out to the agent that each person impacted is a ticketed passenger.
- Refunds: If the airline can’t rebook your family or you decline the rebooking, the airlines then owe you a full refund for every ticket in your family.
Except for refunds, these aren’t legal requirements, so the airlines don’t have to provide this compensation. However, once they have promised it, the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) enforces that they honor that promise.
You can get a quick overview of which airlines offer compensation on the DOT dashboard.
Most of the time, you won’t get cash compensation (apart from a refund if you don’t travel at all), so make sure your vouchers are adequate to cover your costs.
In some cases, you can receive reimbursement for money spent, so keep track of costs to submit a claim to the airline.
Important: If you decline the rebooking and get a refund, you can’t then also get hotel accommodations or meal vouchers.
Overbooking compensation
If a U.S. airline overbooks and you and your children are denied boarding, this is the one scenario where you are entitled to cash compensation.
The amount is up to $775 or $1,550 per person, depending on how much extra time it takes to get to your destination.
Remember: If all the people in the party are denied boarding, you’re eligible for cash for each ticketed passenger.
You might also be able to get a better deal if you volunteer. If your whole family can volunteer on an overbooked flight, you might be able to negotiate extra perks like lounge access or a voucher worth more than your legally guaranteed amount.
However, if you agree to an airline’s offer, you waive your guaranteed amount.
READ MORE: What to Do If Your Flight Is Overbooked
Legal protections by region
Some regions, such as the European Union, have stricter legal requirements. When you’re traveling to or within the EU, you have the right to compensation for delays of more than three hours.
It gets a bit complicated, but EU rules apply to:
- If your flight is within the EU and is operated by any airline
- If your flight arrives in the EU and is operated by an EU airline
- If your flight departs from the EU to a non-EU country and is operated by any airline
Additionally, if the airline overbooked and you’re involuntarily denied boarding, you’re entitled to a minimum of €250.
Keep in mind that you’ve paid for tickets for all your family members, so they are also entitled to that compensation.
READ MORE: Domestic vs. International Flight Delay Compensation
Travel insurance benefits
Because airlines don’t have to reimburse you for costs associated with delayed or canceled flights, family travel insurance might help.
For example, if you have a family policy with trip cancellation/interruption insurance, you can also claim lost costs, like a missed hotel night or tour in your destination, or rental car costs if you end up needing alternative transportation.
Travel insurance can also cover you in the case of uncontrollable delays and cancellations. For example, weather delays usually aren’t covered by airlines, so you might not be eligible for compensation from the airline if you’re grounded in a snowstorm.
Your travel insurance could reimburse you and help with booking you and your loved ones on a different flight.
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Steps To File Compensation Claims With Airlines
If you plan to file a compensation claim, here are the steps to take:
- Confirm your eligibility: Review the airline policy for your situation.
- Document the disruption: Save everything! Keep copies of each boarding pass for you and your children. Save any receipts for meals, lodging, and transportation. If you received delay notices, save those as well. If you’ve been bumped, request the terms in writing.
- Contact the airline directly: Start by checking the airline’s customer service channels and finding out how to submit a claim. Make copies of all your documentation to send if requested. Keep originals for your records.
Sometimes, airlines are slow. Find out from customer service how to check the status of your claim, and follow up regularly. Be persistent!
You can use services like AirHelp to navigate the system, but understand that these services often charge a steep percentage of what you recover.
How Travel Insurance Covers Family Delays or Cancellations
Family vacations magnify all the costs associated with travel, so if you’re concerned, travel insurance can be a smart move, especially if you have a lot of activities planned.
Trip interruption benefits
While you might be rebooked by the airline or eligible for other compensation, the cost of meals, lodging, and transportation if you can’t wait for the airline to fix the problem can be prohibitive.
This is where trip interruption benefits come in. All of your family’s extra meals, lodging, and other costs can be reimbursed.
Compensation for prepaid activities
If your delay or cancellation results in the loss of activities, travel insurance can help. These policies often reimburse you for nonrefundable excursions and even nights at a hotel.
Perhaps one of your children gets sick, and you can no longer go on a paid-for tour. The tour won’t refund your money, but you might be able to get reimbursed by your travel insurance.
Assistance with alternate arrangements
Perhaps waiting on the airline will lead to even bigger delays. Travel insurance providers can help with rebooking flights or finding alternative transportation.
With the right travel insurance policy, you can get help with rebooking, even on another airline, and be covered for the extra cost. You can also get help with other arrangements, such as getting a rental car.
FAQs About Claiming Compensation
How long does it take to receive compensation from an airline?
This depends on the type of compensation and the situation. For example, compensation for a cancelled flight might be quicker since the amount can be refunded to your credit card. On the other hand, it can take weeks or months for an airline to process your reimbursement for a claim related to lost luggage.
What should I do if my compensation claim is denied?
If your claim is denied, gather your documentation and file an appeal. If you believe the airline has run afoul of the law, you can escalate to the Department of Transportation.
If you have travel insurance, you might be able to get reimbursed through them if you provide documentation that the airline denied your claim.
Are family-specific expenses (e.g., additional child tickets) reimbursable?
Yes, your child's tickets should be reimbursed by the airline if the flight is canceled and they can’t rebook you. You paid for the tickets, and your kids are ticketed passengers.
TL;DR: Claiming Compensation as a Family
Flight delays and cancellations can disrupt family travel, but compensation rights and travel insurance can mitigate the financial burden.
Know your rights, document everything, and use travel insurance to recover lost costs.
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